Players always get old, but you never know when they’re going to become ineffective. For years the Eagles refused to get involved with big name free agents who were either past or nearing the age of 30.
They walked away from many free agents because of their age. They said good-bye to their own players rather than signing them to long-term deals when they got close to thirty-years old. After looking at their disappointing defense, it seems that they should return to their 30-year old rule.
They had a good reason for that rule. They never wanted to get caught relying on a free agent who was on his way down hill. They would cost big money, but not pan out. This seems to be what is happening to the Birds right now, especially with the defense.
The Eagles signed a few prized free agents before the 2011 season and few if any of them have lived up to their billing.
Defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins was billed as one of the keys to the Green Bay Packers run to a Super Bowl title after the 2010 season. Jenkins is 31 and approaching 32. So far he has notched one sack and 13 tackles after seven games in the 2012 season.
His lone sack was made at the end of the loss to the Falcons when Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan slid on the ground to protect the ball and run out the clock. Rookie Fletcher Cox and free agent Cedric Thornton have totally outplayed him.
He started out with a bang at the start of the 2011 season with five sacks, but has done next to nothing since then.
They signed defensive end Jason Babin and he put up a big year in 2011 with 18 sacks, but he hasn’t done much in 2012. Babin is undersized for his position but was able to get the job one in 2011 with tremendous effort and tenacity. He seems to have run out of gas this year.
His partner on the other side, former Eagles fifth round draft pick Trent Cole seems to have run out of gas, as well. Cole is 30 years old.
The Eagles front office were in a celebratory mood when they signed former Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. He was supposed to be a future Hall of Famer and the best shut down cornerback this side of Dorrelle Revis. It hasn’t worked out so far. Last year the excuse was that he wasn’t being used properly by defensive coordinator Juan Castillo.
Castillo is no longer here and Asomugha is being allowed to play as much bump and run as he wants to do. He’s still getting beaten and has become the target of opposing quarterbacks.
There’s no way that he’s worth the millions of dollars the Birds are paying him. I see no reason the Birds should have him back in 2013 with the way he’s played in 2012. It seems every other game, he’s getting beaten for a score.
Middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans is 28 and still playing at a very high level. He’s still has his quickness and explosiveness. Once the legs go a player can’t play at the same level anymore. The Birds don’t need to resign after his deal is up in a couple of years.
Of course saying good-bye to aging players means you’ve got to do a good job in the draft.
G do you want me to be a contributing writer to GCOBB.COM? I wrote this several hours ago. Glad to see you read the posts but you should give credit where credit is due. It’s kind of like plagiarism dude
Agree 100% G
The recent acquisitions have been busts…..Cannot wait for Andy to be fired….
Everyone can say today, if they really are honest with themselves, that former President Joe Banner was the real brains behind this irganization rise from the 20 years of mediocrity when he took office. Say what you want to about his brashness, aloofness, but the man had a keen sense of finance, contracts. Salary cap issues and the Eagles in these areas have not been the same since Coach AR got the upper gand in these matters 2 years ago..
Banner was a lame duck last year knowing that he was moving on after the 2011 Season and though Banner was not a great talent evaluator, he consistently built this Franchise from the ashes it was in after the Norman Braman ownership. His protege Howie Roseman is a numbers guy also but Rosenan also thinks he’s a solid Talent evaluator and knows the game of football, which he clearly doesn’t. This Franchise is a mess right now from top to bottom in my opinion and if Owner Jeff Lurie doesn’t do some real soul-searching right now to Decenber and talk to and interview a real GM with a Football acumen, then this Eagle Franchise will continue to be walking the line of mediocrity or even worse. Jeff, I am begging you to stop the nonsense, forget the loyalties of the past and hire a real GM
Bill Polian is available, Mike Mayock would be interested in discussions, Ron Wolf is retired now but could help with a “search comittee”
But you need to get the Front Office straightened out and hire a GM
With a vision, a philosophy that meshes with the history the the Eagles Feanchise and their deserving canvass of a tough,smart, agressive football team who plays every snap of every game as if it’s their last..
Where’s the passion been the last last 3-4 Years, what’s the Eagles home record since 2009??? Not very good is it..
Agree with you 100% Paul! Great post! Brian Billick is our next coach. Guaranteed! He is friends with Lurie, & Reid for that matter. He is an offensive guru, is a very good leader, & won a SB with Trent F^#@ing Dilfer! Yes he had a great DF, but nevertheless, he won with Dilfer at the helm. That’s no easy feat!
@ Paulman, I could not agree with you more about this team and the problem with the personnel department. The name that I would love to see them bring back would be, Marc Ross. He was with the Eagles from 1997 to 2004, where he went from a regional scout, to the youngest college scouting director in the NFL in 3 years. He was the the teams college scouting director for 4 years before being fired in 2004, to make room for the Howie Roseman fast tract to GM, to begin. The level of cronyism this team has displayed in the rapid advancement of Howie Roseman is sickening and disturbing ! If you follow the timeline, Roseman was the working in the salary cap department from 2000, when he joined the team, to 2003, when he was promoted to ” Director of football administration.” This was still a non football – non scouting position. ( He basically went from sitting in a office reviewing contracts etc. , to sitting on Joe Banners lap during contract negotiations. ) After 3 years, in 2006, he was again promoted, this time he was promoted to the, ” Vice president of football administration. ” a role where he supposedly was scouting college and NFL players and still doing salary cap and contracts too. The reality is that the majority of his day to day duties were still in salary cap management and contracts, but he was allowed to wander down the hall from time to time, to sit on big Tom Heckart’s lap and watch film on college players. This supposedly, ” Trained ” him to, be able to scout players for the NFL. If you follow the time line, Howie could not have been promoted to this position if Marc Ross was not fired in 2004, because that position was already occupied. Another very talented scout who was also fired, to allow Rosemen to advance was, Jason Licht. Jason was hired in 2003 to be the teams assistant director of player personnel. He came to the team with 8 years of scouting college players for the NFL, and was in the same position with the New England Patriots. In 2005, he was promoted to the vice president of player personnel by the Eagles, where he remained until 2007, when he was fired. This position was filled in 2009 by Howie Roseman, who’s position prior to this was only in football administration, a non player evaluation position. So, during the time of Mr. Rosemen’s promotions to extremly important football player evaluation positions, two very, very qualified people in player personnel evaluation with a combined 19 years of scouting and player evaluation experience, were fired, to allow his ascension in the organization. Jason Licht has been the director of pro personnel for the New England Patriots since 2009, and Marc Ross has been the director of college scouting for the New York Giants ( 2nd only to Jerry Reese, the teams GM ) since 2007. Speaking of Jerry Reese, he started with the Giants in 1994 as a college scout, and was promoted 3 times between 1994 to 2007 to his current position of GM. My point of this is, by the time he was promoted to GM, he had 13 years of scouting and player evaluation. The important thing about this is, if you look at the Giants organization since 2007, and look at their draft and free agents, and also very importantly their depth and how they seem to ALWAYS be able to plug in players who perform exxtreamly well when others have injuries. Howie Roseman, just does not have this ability. He can not match the experience that it took for GM’s like Reese, to make these terrific decisions, that have helped the Giants win 2 Super Bowls in the last 5 years! I think it takes a philosiphy to drafting and scouting players and building a winning team through the draft, that’s why the Eagles shoul bring back Marc Ross, who ha s been groomed under Reese for the last 5 years. Our Gm should be Ryan Grigson, who worked in the Eagles personnel department for 8 years since 2004, and was promoted two times to director of player personnel, but was passed over for Howie Roseman. Would you have stayed? I think not!
@bigtimefan GREAT GREAT STUFF… to be an NFL talent evaluator takes yrs of study sitting under someone…Howie dosent cut it for me either
the biggest mistake was giving Andy full control and shipping out modrak. Andy went from a qb coach in GB and with in 3 yrs full control of this franchise. WITH NO REAL EXPERIENCE IN TALENT EVALUATION. full control of a team and being a coach has been done sucessfully only twice in the last 30 yrs Bill Walsh & bellechek believe me it was 2 different circumstances. the draft is the key to a teams sucess you cannot keep mis firing on first & second rd draft picks (out on the top 64 players in the country ) after rd 3 it takes real skill to find players say what u want about Buddy Ryan but he found all-pro’s often in the later rds ( it wasn’t luck like Andy ) right now after 7 gms this yr we have gotten no real production from 1st & 2nd rd picks from 2010 & 2011.
you can’t draft a Matt Mccoy & jaquan Jarrett in the 2nd rd ( THERE BOTH NO LONGER ON THE TEAM ) there is a price to pay when you check out and draft a shaun andrews andgive him a big contract & fail to check out his mental capacity. so with that you have to conclude that andrews was a failure I just hope when a new regime comes in that Roseman is not in any decision making capacity
Agree completely on Banner. Was upset he left. I am convinced the’ll have the stinkin’ Browns turned around very quickly.
Remember, after he was released, he laughed when asked if he’d have resigned Desean. There is no way he had anything to do with the VIck extension either.
I used to love the “dump all fading players at 30+” mantra (and props to cigar for bringing this up early today)….though we have to remember there were a lot of fans who hated it….”nickles” Banner got his nickname because he was thought to value $$ over loyalty….though I never quite understood that….why be loyal to an old player who can’t run anymore??
Vin, honestly, the only mistake they ever made with the over 30 philosophy, was B-Dawk, & honestly he was on the downgrade. But they still haven’t properly replaced him! The evalutors are the MAJOR problem with this team. Until that changes, expect garbage, & underachievers every year!
VV believe it or not I had total confidence as they let those 30 year olds walk and WIP was screaming. It was a great philosophy… AR should have never abandon it. He bought into flash. Damn stick to your principles
Coach Ar is like Mitt Romney, he has no Principles left and is flip-flopping on everythign he can think of to save his job as HC of the Eagles.. It’s Over for him just like it;s been over for Romney for the last 6 Years he’s been running for POTUS..
NO, what they need to do, is get somebody the F^#@ in here that knows how to evaluate, draft, & sign players! Not a glorified, unqualified banker/ accountant as a GM, & a failure of a leader in Reid! That’s what they need to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This team is too small, too slow, untalented, heartless, leaderless, selfish, & overpaid! How the F^#@ are you supposed to win with the pure dreck, we have playing, all over the field?!? Our secondary is 3/4 trash truck juice! Our LB’s still aren’t good enough! Our O-line is Pop-Warner! Our QB is as dumb as a bag of hammers! Our D-line is too small, & invisible! We make no big plays, on either side of the ball! Our ST’s are atrocious! And most of all, our coaching staff & GM, are inept, idiotic & ride the short yellow bus! The entire organization needs a complete brooming, an entire change in philosophy!!! Immediately, if not sooner!!!
I think that Pman has hit on the heart of the problem. They need a new GM that can act independently. Without that, then we will be stuck in the same cycle that were are currently in. No way Roseman should survive this mess.
Hire a real GM like the Ravens have (Ozzie Newsome), like the NY Giants have in (Jerry Reese), and have this PErson with a Football Background, set the new Philosophy and Vision for the Franchise and then allow this Person to go out and Hire a Coaching Staff that reflects this Philosophy and Vision
As I mentioned, you have Bill Polian out there, Mike Mayock to talk to,
maybe a Former Coach like a Tony Dungy would like the GM Role, and then let him hire a Coaching Staff in his likeness.. I even look at a Ron Jaworski as a Step-Up over Roseman, maybe Ron Jaworski could be in this Role of GM/President of Football Operations, he knows and has been evaluating Collegiate Talent for over 20 years and knows the NFL workings very well since he’s been invovled with many aspects of the game since Retiring 25 years ago..
I see Fans mentions Boise State Head Coach (Chris Peterson) which is not going to happen for he has no interest in leaving the College Game
A couple of College Coaches that could be interested in moving to the NFL
Les Miles of LSU
Bob Stoops of Oklahoma
Mark Ritcher of Georgia
Mark D’Antonio of Michigan State
*Pat Fitzgerald of Northwestern
Top Coordinator’s around the NFL who could be in line for a HC Position
*Perry Jewell (DC of Giants)
Kevin Gilbride (OC of the Giants)
*Winston Moss (Asst HC of the Packers)
*VInce Fangio (DC of the 49ers)
*Tom Clements (OC of the Packers)
*Brad Seely (SPecial Teams of the 49ers)
Ray Horton Jr (DC of the Arizona Cardinals)
MIke Nolan (DC of the Atlanta Falcons)
MIke Pettine (DC of the NY Jets)
Rob Ryan (DC of the Cowboys)
Todd Haley (OC of the Steelers)
*Bruce Arians (OC of the COlts- if HC Chuck Pagano’s health allows him back to HC)
Dirk Koetter (OC of the Falcons)
Mike Tice (OC of the Chicago Bears)
The Asterick Denote a Real “Person of Interest” that Lurie will be looking into and probably doing background info on them and will have to wait until after the their Season to actually talk to..
@ paulman, Jeffery Lurie would NEVER hire Ron Jaworski, who has forgot more football knowledge than than Howie Roseman will EVER have. The reason is, the same reason he didn’t hire Dick Vermeil, because jeffery is too insecure to hire someone who may take too much of the glory ( in Jeffery’s mind only ) if the Eagles were to win the Super Bowl. Ron Jaworski and Dick Vermeil are Philadelphia institutions and Jeffery Lurie would have been loved, if he would have brought one or both of them here to represent the Eagles again. That’s one of the big problems with this team…….. people running the team that are so afraid that anyone will find out that they don’t know NFL football, forgetting that, that’s why you hire people that do…..not ” yes ” men that don’t know what they are doing. If Howie is back…..I am DONE!
I think Lurie will be selling the Eagles within the next 2 Years Anyways..
No more buffy Joe Banner, Divorce from his WIfe and now separating himself
from the 14 Years of HC Andy Reid.. Lurie is not a Football Guy, he loves the Sport and Owning the Franchise, but I think he’s done with it also..
I just hope he doesn’t sell it to Gangster Wanna-Be Ed Snider..